Sat. scheduled conference call

Hey did anyone happen to get in on the conference call with hall today tried to dial in 5 min early but could never get patched in. If anyone was in on the call could you please give any updates on the contract that were possibly talked about.

Hey did anyone happen to get in on the conference call with hall today tried to dial in 5 min early but could never get patched in. If anyone was in on the call could you please give any updates on the contract that were possibly talked about.

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I guess they meant Central Time... On hold now waiting for the speaker to arrive.

Hey did anyone happen to get in on the conference call with hall today tried to dial in 5 min early but could never get patched in. If anyone was in on the call could you please give any updates on the contract that were possibly talked about.

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There were over 1000 people connected when hall started ~12:06 PM EST or so. One of the other stewards from my local couldn't get on because the lines were jammed (good job there, TDU - you would have been better off recording it and posting it online instead of leaking the IBT notice) so I had to keep him posted via Facebook..

Main points he mentioned:

We aren't planning on budging on health care.
Tighter SurePost language, including mandatory arbitration to terminate the program if the company starts abusing the program like they have.
More avenues for PT'ers to go full-time, including 22.3's, package cars, and feeders. No specifics mentioned, other than acknowledging the company isn't filling vacated combo jobs.
Tighter 9.5 language and including cover drivers under the article. Raising starting wages/wages in general for PT'ers. This was another priority - he addressed the transient nature of UPS PT'ers and their lack of participation. He also acknowledged many want a FT job.
Production harassment - he mentioned, again, that this was a high priority.

He also addressed the reasons behind the so-called "brown out"; tentative agreements are just that - tentative. He said if the IBT leaked info, the company could try and weaken other articles in exchange while putting the word out via mgmt to the membership that we're getting a great deal. "National Days of Actions" may also be coming if UPS continues to complain about health insurance.

There were over 1000 people connected when hall started ~12:06 PM EST or so. One of the other stewards from my local couldn't get on because the lines were jammed (good job there, TDU - you would have been better off recording it and posting it online instead of leaking the IBT notice) so I had to keep him posted via Facebook..

Main points he mentioned:

We aren't planning on budging on health care.
Tighter SurePost language, including mandatory arbitration to terminate the program if the company starts abusing the program like they have.
More avenues for PT'ers to go full-time, including 22.3's, package cars, and feeders. No specifics mentioned, other than acknowledging the company isn't filling vacated combo jobs.
Tighter 9.5 language and including cover drivers under the article. Raising starting wages/wages in general for PT'ers. This was another priority - he addressed the transient nature of UPS PT'ers and their lack of participation. He also acknowledged many want a FT job.
Production harassment - he mentioned, again, that this was a high priority.

He also addressed the reasons behind the so-called "brown out"; tentative agreements are just that - tentative. He said if the IBT leaked info, the company could try and weaken other articles in exchange while putting the word out via mgmt to the membership that we're getting a great deal. "National Days of Actions" may also be coming if UPS continues to complain about health insurance.

UPS has been complaining about the cost of health insurance at the negotiating table. They cite the statistic that 97% of workers nationwide pay for part of their health insurance. GST hall said that if we start paying for our health insurance this contract, it simply opens the door for the company to demand we pay more and pay for it in subsequent contract discussions later on down the line. If UPS was posting losses and losing money, it would be something we could talk about. But right now - with the profits the company is reporting - it's a non-starter.

UPS has been complaining about the cost of health insurance at the negotiating table. They cite the statistic that 97% of workers nationwide pay for part of their health insurance. GST hall said that if we start paying for our health insurance this contract, it simply opens the door for the company to demand we pay more and pay for it in subsequent contract discussions later on down the line. If UPS was posting losses and losing money, it would be something we could talk about. But right now - with the profits the company is reporting - it's a non-starter.

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Thanks for the reply.
I am ashamed that I was not paying attention for a while.
It is not that I did not care. Just wanted to affirm what I heard before from a seasoned
realiable source.

There were over 1000 people connected when hall started ~12:06 PM EST or so. One of the other stewards from my local couldn't get on because the lines were jammed (good job there, TDU - you would have been better off recording it and posting it online instead of leaking the IBT notice) so I had to keep him posted via Facebook..

Main points he mentioned:

We aren't planning on budging on health care.
Tighter SurePost language, including mandatory arbitration to terminate the program if the company starts abusing the program like they have.
More avenues for PT'ers to go full-time, including 22.3's, package cars, and feeders. No specifics mentioned, other than acknowledging the company isn't filling vacated combo jobs.
Tighter 9.5 language and including cover drivers under the article. Raising starting wages/wages in general for PT'ers. This was another priority - he addressed the transient nature of UPS PT'ers and their lack of participation. He also acknowledged many want a FT job.
Production harassment - he mentioned, again, that this was a high priority.

He also addressed the reasons behind the so-called "brown out"; tentative agreements are just that - tentative. He said if the IBT leaked info, the company could try and weaken other articles in exchange while putting the word out via mgmt to the membership that we're getting a great deal. "National Days of Actions" may also be coming if UPS continues to complain about health insurance.

We have roughly 125 hourly employees in my center so collectively we have zero impact on the outcome of the election. The IBT should focus their efforts on the larger facilities while keeping in mind that a strike in this economy would be public relations suicide.

The IBT should focus their efforts on the larger facilities while keeping in mind that a strike in this economy would be public relations suicide.

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Not necessarily. I was thinking yesterday that the insurance hike they sent out to retirees might offer quite a bit of leverage for the Teamsters.

In the event of a strike they could spin that as a large greedy corporation raising insurance rates high enough to bump their retirees off onto the public insurance payrolls. Combine that with the fact that they haven't raised part time wages for 15 years and made billions in profit and IMO that would be a huge black eye for UPS.